The New Threat
"The New Threat" (ミニ悟空はおぼっちゃま! ボク悟飯です, Mini Goku wa Obotchama! Boku Gohan Desu; lit. "Mini-Goku is a Sheltered Boy! I am Gohan") is the first episode of the anime series Dragon Ball Z. Its original Japanese air date was April 26th, 1989. It features the debut of Goku's son Gohan and his brother Raditz in the anime. It is also the first episode of the American Uncut DVD release of the Vegeta Saga. The first episode in the American original dubbed version is "The Arrival of Raditz". It contains an edited and merged version of "The New Threat" and the second Japanese episode, "Reunions". Summary Five years have passed since the events of Dragon Ball, and the world is enjoying a reign of peace. Little do the people of Earth know, a new threat is coming to Earth. The episode begins with Chi-Chi calling for her son, Gohan. The scene goes to Goku, hopping though the forest behind his house looking for some firewood. After finding and knocking down one of the largest trees in the forest with one punch, he picks it up and heads for home. When he gets there, Chi-Chi asks him to go out into the woods and look for Gohan, so they can go to Master Roshi's house. Goku agrees, and Chi-Chi tells him to take the Flying Nimbus so they are not late. Meanwhile, a Farmer is working in a field, putting a stack of hay into his truck, when he hears a strange noise. He looks up to see a round spaceship fall and crash in the fields. The farmer asks himself, "why me?" and gets in his truck to check it out. He gets to the crater the ship made and takes out a rifle for protection. As soon as the farmer walks up to the crater, the ship opens up and an alien steps out of it. The alien floats out of the crater, the farmer loads his gun and tells the alien (nervously) that he is on his property. The alien presses the button on his Scouter and reads his Power Level, which is 5. The farmer shoots his gun, but the mysterious invader catches the bullet in his hand and flicks it back at him, killing the farmer. His scouter then picks up a high Power Level and he takes off after it, calling "Prepare yourself, Kakarot!". The scene then goes to little Gohan in the woods, lost and scared. He calls out for his daddy, then starts to cry and runs through the woods. He stops at the giant stump, where Goku knocked down the tree, and sits down, looking up. He sees a beautiful blue and black butterfly land on the tree stump, and as he gets up, the butterfly flies away. Gohan chases after it and it lands on high up on a tree. Gohan tries to climb up to reach it, but miserably fails. He looks around and when he comes back, the butterfly flies away. Gohan walks out of the woods and hears a noise in the bushes, and thinking it is the butterfly, walks up to it. Instead of a butterfly, it is a Sabertooth Cat. Gohan tries to run, but trips on the ground. Gohan decides the best way is to play dead, so he lays on the ground. The tiger becomes confused, and licks Gohan's face. It tastes him, then takes his red hat (that has a Dragon Ball on it) and runs away with it. Gohan gets up, and realizing that his hat is gone, starts crying, exclaiming his dad gave him that hat. He gets up and runs into the woods to chase the tiger. The tiger turns around, and seeing the crying boy chasing him, runs as fast as he can. The tiger tries to lose Gohan every way he can, going through bushes, around trees and over large rocks and he still does not lose him. The tiger finally takes a sharp turn and Gohan goes straight through bushes, and over a cliff. Gohan falls quickly, and as he falls, he faints. When Gohan wakes up, he is hanging from his tail upside down from a tree inches away from the ground and not hurt at all. In a quick scene, Goku is by the stump Gohan was sitting on earlier, calling for him. It then, goes back to Gohan trying to get across a river using stepping stones. He barely gets on one, and calls for his mommy and daddy again. He gets across the river and is walking along the rocks when he sees a blue bird roosting on a log hanging over the river. He says "Hello" to the bird and gets on the log to talk to it. He introduces himself to it and it flies away, so he tries to reach for it, but the log unhinges itself from the rock and Gohan goes into the river with the log. When he tries to grab onto it, the log spins and Gohan calls for his parents. Meanwhile, Goku is looking around and he sees the Sabertooth Cat with a hat on. He recognizes it as Gohan's hat, so Goku asks the tiger if he has seen him. The tiger growls at Goku and Goku asks again, but more angrily, scaring the tiger. The hat drops off its head and it runs into the woods. Back to Gohan, he is going down the river on the log when it hits a rock. Gohan lets go of the log and flails around trying to grab the log. He grabs it and calls for his mom and dad repeatedly. Above, Goku is looking for Gohan using the Flying Nimbus and sees his son flailing on the log in the river. Goku calls his name and Gohan calms down once he sees his father above him. He accidently lets go of the log and grabs the end of it when it turns around. He flies down, and once he is about to reach Gohan, he must fly up because of a small cave the river goes into. Goku flies up as fast as the Nimbus can go to get over the very large plateau. The cave ends at a waterfall, and before Goku can get to Gohan, Gohan goes over. Goku, thinking his son went over the edge, is about to jump over when he hears him crying above. He looks up to see Gohan crying on top of a tree branch hanging over the cliff, above the waterfall. Goku flies up with the Nimbus and Gohan jumps and hugs his dad, thanking his dad for saving him. Goku asks how he got up there. Gohan says that he lost his hat, and Goku puts it on, telling him to go get cleaned up so they can go to Master Roshi's. Over a city, the mysterious alien is flying in disgust. The scene goes to the evil Piccolo in a wasteland, when he feels a huge power coming toward him. The alien lands and says he thought that Piccolo was this 'Kakarot'. He reads Piccolo's Power Level (which is 322) and says he would be a fool to attack him. Piccolo says he has no intention of starting a fight, but the alien says he does. Piccolo gets mad and fires a Explosive Demon Wave at him, thinking he has destroyed him. However, when the dust clears, the mysterious alien is not even hurt at all. He is about to attack Piccolo with an attack he calls a Double Sunday, when his Scouter goes off. He flies off, saying it is Kakarot for sure. Piccolo gets down and breathes, saying how he hit him full force and he did not even flinch. The mysterious Saiyan is flying towards the Power Level on his Scouter and talks about how he still remembers the day they sent Kakarot to Earth. Battles *Raditz vs. Farmer *Piccolo vs. Raditz Trivia *This is one of the very few episodes of Dragon Ball Z to feature new footage prior to the title screen. While this was done frequently in the original Dragon Ball, it was far less common in Dragon Ball Z. The other episodes are "The Heavens Tremble", "Krillin's Proposal" and "Frieza's Counterattack". *A shot of the sun flickering flames as Raditz's ship flies by is taken almost verbatim from the intro to the original Dragon Ball. *The first shot is of a mountain that looks exactly like Mount Frappe, except without the purple clouds ontop, which had appeared a few episodes earlier in Dragon Ball. Gallery References Site Navigation Category:Vegeta Saga Category:Dragon Ball Z episodes Category:Episodes Category:Dragon Ball Z